The furphy flies down under

I thought you may be interested to note that the Bill Moyers slander of James Watt has been repeated verbatim in one of Australia’s most prominent newspapers.
Alan Ramsey, a columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald, has reprinted large chunks of Moyers’ speech given when receiving his Harvard Medical School award. There is no mention of the fact that Watts never made the comments attributed to him, nor the fact that the comments grossly misstate his position.
Here is the op-ed piece: “Seeing beyond faith to a dire revelation.” I have blogged on it here (mostly a link to your original posts).
The thing that did strike me is that, had I not read powerline – a US blog – I would have had no idea that an Australian columnist was feeding me a complete furphy. As always, please keep up the great work.

We have previously quoted Mark Twain’s maxim that a lie can travel half-way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. This case provides a striking illustration of the maxim, and taught me a new word.
HINDROCKET adds: Tim Blair, who’s on the scene, is also on the case, alerted by Attila and others. The truth actually stands a better chance of catching up in the internet age.